In a letter of 9 August 1930, TS Eliot dissociates himself from modern poets. He alone is exploring the â??intenserâ? feelings â??in terms of the divine goalâ?. Among the telling letters he wrote from the age of 41 to 43 are those explaining that his model for his long poem Ash Wednesday (1930) had been Danteâ??s initiation into the â??new lifeâ?, La Vita Nuova. Its aim was â??the discipline of the emotionsâ?.
The correspondence in this new volume follow Eliotâ??s great Dante essay of 1929. Two outstanding letters open up Eliotâ??s commitment to the psychic journey through an inferno and purgatory, and his reach toward expressing the inexpressible in future poems.
Read Full Article »